Students’ rights activists yesterday voiced their support for former Vanung University student Chiu Chih-yen (邱智彥), who was allegedly expelled from the school for his attempt to found a student organization, and urged universities to “lift martial law” from campus.
Appearing at a forum on students’ rights yesterday, Chiu told participants that he was expelled from the school for insisting on creating a student organization focusing on social issues and disadvantaged groups in society.
According to Chiu’s account — supported by several documents and a video clip — he submitted an application to create a student organization with the name “Voices of the Marginalized,” but was turned down because school officials thought the name was not appropriate.
NAME CHANGES
“Then I changed the name several times, including the ‘Political Commentary Club’ — which the school said was ‘too political,’ and finally, they accepted the name ‘Social and Humanitarian Club,’” Chiu recounted. “But then they said I needed endorsements from students from at least eight departments at the school.”
Chiu said that the requirement did not originally exist, but was added into the school’s rules in late December after his application process had dragged on for a long time.
After Chiu completed the required process, “the school then told me that I needed to wait while they took care of the application of the Robot Club. I waited and waited, but kept being told that they were still reviewing the other club’s application,” Chiu said.
SIT-IN
Sensing that the school was purposely trying to block his application, he began a one-person sit-in protest outside of the school, but it only got him into more trouble.
In the end, he received demerits for videotaping a meeting with school officials and for staging a sit-in outside of the school that “blocked traffic,” and was subsequently expelled from the school.
“The meeting over the application to form a student organization is a public issue that should be transparent. Besides, they did not voice any objection when I videotaped,” Chiu said.
‘MARTIAL LAW RULE’
“Many people may think that college campuses are very free after constitutional interpretations No. 382 and No. 684 [sic] gave college students the right to file administrative lawsuits against school decisions or policies,” Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), spokesman for the Student Rights Team, told the forum. “But the campus is still under some sort of martial law rule.”
He said that despite the measures students are entitled to take, “the [High Administrative] Court would usually decline to hear such cases based on reasons of academic independence.”
Therefore, Lin said, some inadequate rules still existed on campus, such as curfews at student dorms and restrictive procedures for the establishment of student organizations.
“Last year, [National] Kaohsiung Normal University even banned students and professors from commenting on current or social issues as students or faculty members of the school,” Lin said. “Students, as citizens, should enjoy the same degree of rights as everybody else in the country.”
The group urged the Ministry of the Education to help “lift martial law” on campuses, saying student representatives should be involved in discussions on issues related to students’ rights.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese